Uzor Arukwe says he always seeks explicit consent from his female colleagues, especially those who are married, before performing romantic scenes.
The Nollywood actor opened up about his professional boundaries regarding romantic scenes in an interview on BBC Igbo.
Speaking amid swirling rumours of an affair with his recent co-star BamBam, Arukwe dismissed the speculation as “baseless”.
He had earlier vowed to make an X user a “scapegoat” for falsely claiming he impregnated the actress — a rumour he claimed caused friction between BamBam and her husband, Teddy A.
In the interview, the actor recalled that this is not the first time he has been romantically linked to a leading actress, noting that he was previously paired with Bimbo Ademoye in similar gossip.
He stressed that such rumours would never deter him from delivering convincing performances.
Arukwe disclosed that he met BamBam for the first time on the set of ‘Love in Every Word’ part 1, despite being familiar with her from her time on Big Brother Naija.
He explained that before filming intimate scenes, he always communicates with his female co-stars to establish boundaries.
“Shooting part one of ‘Love in Every Word’ was the first time I was seeing BamBam. Of course, I watched her during her BBN days. Before the rumours about me and BamBam, there were similar rumours about me and Bimbo Ademoye,” he said.
“It is just work and we have to do what we have to do. If you give me Aunty Shaffy (Shaffy Bello) now or Mo Abudu, my job is to make sure it is believable.
“What I often do before filming starts is meet my female colleague and ask, ‘How far is too far for you? If I touch you in certain places, would your husband be angry?’ I ask this because I do not want to go beyond the bounds of decency.”
He said he decided to address the claims because he was “worried” about the marriage of BamBam and her husband Teddy A.
“This is not my first time acting in such romantic movies, but the one that got to me was when they said I impregnated a lady. That was when I came out to debunk it because the person was spreading a false narrative,” he added.
“It was not really a matter of concern to me because all those claims were lies. I was worried for BamBam and Teddy A, actually, but I knew they would eventually grow past it.”
The rumours began circulating shortly after the release of Omoni Oboli’s ‘Love In Every Word’, in which Arukwe and BamBam played romantic leads, earning the on-screen nicknames Odogwu and Achalugo.
